


Battles Won, Wars Lost

by misura



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Charcy, Jossed, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 12:28:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2812004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All roads end at Charcy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. main story

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spaceelevator](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceelevator/gifts).



_Half an hour,_ Laurent had said. _I need you to hold the line for thirty minutes._

_I will, and longer than that, if you need me to,_ Damen had replied. It had not felt like bravado at the time; it had been like that time at Marlas. _Father, I can beat him._

Laurent had shaken his head. _No. Half an hour is enough,_ and Damen had not asked _For what?_

 

In truth, there was no need to parley. The lines of battle had been drawn; there was no question of an agreement, some sort of compromise. Everything would end at Charcy. One of them would die here.

"You can still surrender," the Regent said. He had come accompanied by two guards, their faces hidden under their helmets. Damen guessed they had been selected for their discretion rather than anything else - discretion, and a willingness to die while eliminating a troublesome Prince, possibly. "I would not execute your men simply for having been led astray."

"No," Laurent said. "I imagine you might be a little more creative. Treason, perhaps? Although even the Court might grow bored before you'll be through executing them."

The Regent sighed, then looked at Damen as if to say _See what a hopeless cause my nephew is?_ "I take no pleasure in this, but you've simply gone too far."

"True, it has been quite a while since I have run into one of your assassins."

"You've involved foreigners in what, by rights, should have been a Veretian matter only," the Regent said. "Even if you are victorious today, how will Vere remain strong if her King has won his throne with the aid of soldiers from outside her borders? Do you imagine they will simply leave, after?"

"I imagine they might be put to use elsewhere." Laurent did not look at Damen, but he might as well have done so. "Thus, they will cease being my problem and instead become his."

Damen realized he had not thought as far ahead as 'after'. There was only the now, this one battle, and Laurent, whom he did not wish to die.

"An elegant solution," said the Regent. "In theory."

"Were there any more aspersions you wished to cast? A comment on my choice of clothes, perhaps?"

"Your arrogance will be your downfall," the Regent said. "It has always blinded you to the truth."

"My companions, then," Laurent said. "Another one of your victims, I believe. Did you imagine you might reveal his identity to me here? Did you think I would be surprised into throwing myself on your sword?"

"You have no idea what you are doing. It will take years to clean up this mess you've made. My only comfort," the Regent said, "is that neither your brother nor mine is here to see what you've become."

"I think we are done here. Don't you?"

The Regent raised his hand. "I meant what I said earlier. Surrender, and your men will be spared. I give you my word. I'll grant your foreign troops free passage back to their homeland."

"My foreign troops?" Laurent asked, and there was something in his tone that made Damen tense. "And what about your own, Uncle? Will they go home at the same time? Because that might be a little awkward. Especially the Akielon ones."

 

Auguste had seemed more than human, that day. At Marlas.

It felt like half a lifetime ago, now, like it had happened to another person, someone who would seek glory in war, find it and consider it enough.

"Hold," Damen said, not caring if anyone else heard him. Everyone in the troop knew their orders.

 

"Damianos," Kastor said, removing the helmet that had hidden his face.

Laurent's face was as impassive as always. Damen wondered how long he had known about this, about the possibility of Akielon troops spilling Akielon blood on Veretian territory.

The Regent smiled thinly. "In view of our newfound ties of friendship, the Akielon King has chosen to support Vere's rightful ruler against those who would usurp his throne."

"Kings should stick together, don't you think?" Kastor said. There was a hollowness to his cheer, and Damen wondered if anything Kastor would do or say today would not be dictated by the Regent.

"As should Princes?" Laurent suggested sweetly.

"You should know about usurping someone's throne," Damen said. "You stole mine."

Kastor shook his head. "I acted while you did nothing. You always were lazy. You lack ambition."

"Our father had just died," Damen said.

"And soon you will, too." Kastor shrugged. "I'd have preferred it if you'd simply escaped and never shown up again, but if you want to die in battle, then I'll be happy to oblige you."

"You couldn't beat me if I had one arm tied behind my back," Damen said.

"I do occasionally wonder why we think of all Akielons as simple-minded barbarians," the Regent told Laurent. "Clearly, there is much more to them than that."

"Is there?" Laurent skewered Damen with a glance. "I honestly hadn't noticed. _Now_ are we done, or would your other guard like to reveal himself as some insignificant nobody as well?"

Kastor flushed.

"No, I do believe we are done," the Regent said.

 

" _Hold._ "

Barely ten minutes, Damen estimated - barely a third of the time Laurent had asked.

" _Hold._ "

Hardly anyone in the troop was unblooded, but only three had fallen; the rest was still standing.

Damen wondered how many more would die in the next ten minutes.

 

"He owes my uncle his throne." Laurent shrugged. "Naturally, Kastor feels indebted to him. Killing me is a neat way to clean that debt - killing you simply makes for a nice bonus."

"You promised me," Damen said, suddenly furious. Not at Laurent, specifically, he thought, but Laurent was there, looking cool and untouchable and impossible to touch.

Their new relationship only meant there were fewer reasons to hold the anger in check, to hold his tongue rather than speak his mind.

"You promised me you would never ask of me to face Akielon troops in battle while in your service."

"You're not," said Laurent, "in my service."

Damen stared at him, speechless.

Laurent grimaced a little. "You are not my slave. I am not your Prince. You are Prince Damianos of Akielos, and if you want to go home right now, then neither I nor anyone who _is_ in my service will stop you. In fact, now might be a very good time, given that Kastor is here, rather than there. So, will you?"

"No." Damen nearly choked on the word. "Of course not. How can you even think that?"

"I grew up trusting only two people, and one of them was King." Laurent's left shoulder dipped lightly. "I am sure he loved me, in his own way, but our interests were rather different." The other person Laurent had trusted absolutely, of course, had been Auguste.

Whom Damen had killed. "You can trust me."

Laurent's expression was considering. "Perhaps."

It was, Damen knew, in many ways more than he could reasonably have hoped for. "I'm with you. Today. Tomorrow." _Forever,_ he wanted to say but didn't. It would be a lie.

"Your idea of our life expectancy is a little on the pessimistic side, isn't it?"

"With Kastor's troops weighing in on the Regent's side, he's outnumbered you. Heavily."

"Quite," said Laurent, "so, really, I can see why you'd choose to stay."

"Why do you?" Damen asked, bluntly.

"Because it's hard to pull off a trick on the battlefield," Laurent said. "I might win here. I'm not going to win elsewhere. Now, come and undress me."

 

Auguste, at Marlas, had been the rock upon which wave after wave of attackers had broken.

Damen was not Auguste. He'd been good enough to kill the man, but he was not now good enough to equal Auguste's accomplishments.

There were fifteen dead now, and in spite of the men's best efforts, Damen could not see how they would be able to hold the line long enough to give Laurent his thirty minutes.

He tried not to think of what that might mean, of what might happen if he failed here. Tried to concentrate on staying alive, holding the line for just one more heartbeat, and then another.

It worked. Almost well enough for him to miss seeing Kastor's reinforcements arrive.

 

"Perhaps you were right," Laurent said, his body resting against Damen's, as close to relaxed as he ever came. "Perhaps I should not have come."

"You only feel that way because you'll be fighting tomorrow. Pre-combat jitters. There's no shame in it; everybody gets them."

"Including you." Laurent didn't make it sound like a question.

Damen chose to interpret it as one anyway. "Yes. It's not going to be easy."

"Few things are," Laurent said, and Damen remembered the expression on Laurent's face as they'd seen one another for the first time after Damen's true name had been publicly revealed at Ravenel.

_Later,_ he'd said then, in response to Damen's slightly desperately expressed wish to discuss the matter. _Not now. Later._ He hadn't touched Damen until later, when they'd had privacy.

It had almost been as if nothing had changed at all, as if they would simply continue on the path they had begun to walk together.

"Don't you think some things should be, though?" Damen asked. He'd seen Laurent fight; he had no right to worry about how Laurent might fare tomorrow, without Damen there to guard him.

Laurent looked at him and kissed him slowly, deeply, before asking, "Why?"

 

_It's hard to pull a trick on a battlefield,_ Laurent had said, and arguably, he'd been wrong. Most strategies were all tricks; attempts to lure the enemy into doing what you wanted him to do.

What Laurent had meant was that, in battle, it was easier to see when you were outmaneuvered. It was harder to conceal a sizeable amount of troops than it was to conceal a single man with a knife.

Damen would have said it was impossible, except that clearly, it was not. The Regent and Kastor between them had managed it.

"I told them to hurry," someone said from the left of him. Laurent.

Damen looked at him, not yet comprehending. The line was held firmly now; Laurent's men had joined them, even as Kastor's troops were swelled by the new arrivals.

"Did you honestly think I would engage my uncle if he had me outnumbered?" Laurent asked.

A horn signalled new orders - somewhere to the right, Damen spotted Nikandros's banner, flying proudly. Further away, another banner was unfolding now, amidst the Akielon troops.

_How?_ Damen wanted to ask, but it was not the right time for it. He wasn't sure if he would understand the answer anyway, or even if Laurent would give him one. "Who?" he asked instead. Not wishing for Laurent to tell him _Kastor_ but knowing it was the most likely.

A man who had already betrayed a prince would hardly balk at betraying a regent. Laurent would have made it worth his while, no doubt; Damen could imagine it all too vividly.

"Later," Laurent said. "We need to attack now. Didn't you hear the signal?"

 

Auguste, at Marlas, had fallen in the end; Damen, at Charly, did not.

There were still losses to mourn - and to celebrate, however privately.

Damen looked at Kastor's still face and tried to decipher his own emotions. For a large part of his life, he'd thought of Kastor as his brother. His friend. Someone to be admired and loved - not blindly, perhaps, but faithfully. One did not stay angry with one's family.

"You could consider it justice, I suppose," Laurent said, joining him.

Damen saw Nikandros stare at the two of them from the other side of the tent where he stood conversing with an Akielon soldier and lightly shook his head.

"Hardly," he said. "Who killed him, do you know?"

"A very gifted archer, who has been well-rewarded for his work, by which I mean that I have paid him and then permitted him to leave here alive." Laurent's expression remained blank. "You were friends, once. Not like me and Auguste, I imagine. Still."

_You could consider it justice, I suppose._ Damen swallowed. "He was a fool, to have treated with you." Marlas had not only been the place where Auguste had shone like the sun; it had also been a lesson Kastor should have learned. Veretians could not be trusted.

"He didn't." Laurent looked momentarily surprised. "I would never treat with someone like him."

"Then why have him killed?" Nikandros's companion turned and Damen felt as if someone had punched him in the stomach.

"It was the price for her aid," Laurent said. "I considered it cheap, given the circumstances."

Damen felt dizzy. "I don't understand."

"Clearly, she grew tired of him. I would not," said Laurent, "advise you to marry her, although that is, of course, your own decision to make. She wishes for her son to inherit the throne. She suggested you might wish to claim him as yours, rather than Kastor's. I've been told the time might be about right."


	2. bonus scenes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> given the structure of BWWR, there were a couple of scenes that I'd planned to put in while brainstorming, but wasn't able to find a good place for in the draft stage. below, you'll find three of these scenes.
> 
> the first one is set somewhere in between the Line storyline and the end of the negotiations - the other two are set post-fic.

_the bowman_

They found the archer exactly where Laurent had told them to expect him.

 _It's very likely,_ Laurent had said, _that this is the same man who killed my father. My uncle doesn't like throwing away things that may still be useful to him._

Damen had not believed him at the time. He supposed he might ask the man now, although it was anyone's guess whether or not the answer he'd receive would be a truthful one.

 _He's not going to be able to tell us anything useful,_ Laurent had also said. _Kill him._

Damen stared down at the man kneeling in front of him and swallowed. To cut down an enemy in combat was one thing; to cold-bloodedly order a man's death when he was your prisoner was something else. Laurent might have been wrong; this might simply be another soldier, following orders from a man he knew no better than to be Vere's rightful ruler.

"Tie his hands," he said, turning away. Almost missing the gleam of the knife that had suddenly appeared in their previously meek prisoner.

A handful of seconds later, Laurent had his wish, and Damen was reminded of why he disliked most Veretians.

 

_the regent_

"You must care for him a great deal," said Nikandros. There was no judgment in his tone, only a mild curiosity, a hint of concern, perhaps.

"It's not that," Damen said. "But yes, I do care for him."

Nikandros's glance slid to Laurent, deep in conversation with Enguerran.

"Is Jokaste's son really yours?"

Damen considered his answer carefully. "I'm not sure it matters, in the end. Whether he is mine or Kastor's, my father's blood flows through his veins. And if you raise him, I'm sure he will make a good King one day."

"Me and Jokaste," Nikandros said.

"Honor and ambition," said Damen. "Each in moderation."

 

_the prince_

"You should have her killed," Laurent said.

"You owe her your throne and probably your life," Damen said.

"Note that I'm not suggesting _I_ should have her killed." Laurent closed his eyes briefly. "Is it that you still imagine yourself to be in love with her? Do you honestly believe you can trust her?"

"I believe I can trust her not to assassinate her own son, yes," Damen said dryly.

"You'd be surprised at how little blood means, to some people."

Damen shook his head. "Her son will be King. It's what she wants, and she can have it."

"And you?" Laurent asked.

Damen took a deep breath. "I will not be King." He had given the matter a great deal of thought. "Unless it's of Vere."

"The title is prince-consort," Laurent said. "And it's yours."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> @The Bowman: My personal headcanon is that in Book 3, we'll discover that, in some way, the Regent is responsible for Auguste's death, rather than Damen - who did defeat Auguste in battle, but did not, in fact, kill him (or did kill him, but only because Auguste had been shot, poisoned or drugged). I realize that this is perhaps not a very _realistic_ headcanon, but ...
> 
> @The Regent: Not gonna lie: this is basically my fix-it for Damen and Laurent to be able to stay together. _Someone_ needs to rule Akielos, though, and while I felt Jokaste deserved a redemption arc more than Kastor, (1) leaving her as Queen seemed a bit much and (2) women don't really seem to be allowed to hold positions of political power in Akielos. (I think?). Nikandros seems well-suited for the role?
> 
> @The Prince: And after the fix-it comes, of course, the actual happy ending. In theory, these two bits might have been pasted on to the main fic, but in practice, I just couldn't paste them on in a way that felt right, and with the deadline looming ... I liked the idea of Damen proposing to Laurent, rather than the other way around, and I kind of feel like Vere needs a good King more than Akielos. (The idea of Laurent going back with Damen to Akielos just feels kind of weird. although that might just be because the books are mainly set in vere.)


End file.
